Hardy, Jones, and Gould (1996) presented a conceptual model of the relationship between mental skills, personality, and coping upon peak performance. In sports, extensive research has been conducted in the area of personality, but with numerous methodological problems such as small samples, atheoretical designs, and a lack of control for type I errors (Vealey, 2002). As Goldberg (1993) reported, personality research has made big steps and has finally succeeded in organizing the multi facets of personality into one model: the Big-Five model (Digman, 1990; Goldberg, 1981). However, an issue that has not received any attention by sport psychology researchers is whether the effects of these personality traits upon training behaviours are moderated by other more changeable variables such as psychological skills. Thus, despite the fact that coaches widely acknowledge the importance of training, very few have investigated such issues (Frey, Laguna, & Ravizza, 2003; Thomas et al., 1999). Partially based upon Hardy, Jones, & Gould`s (1996) model, this particular part of the investigation focuses on the interaction between conscientiousness (personality dimension), and goal-setting (psychological skill) upon quality of preparation (training behaviour). Specifically, it was hypothesized that for athletes using goal setting more systematically, quality of preparation would be high regardless of levels of conscientiousness, whereas for athletes not using goal setting, conscientiousness would be related to quality of preparation. Methods A total of 47 gymnasts participated in the study. These comprised 32 males and 15 females aged between 14 and 34 years old (M = 17.6, SD = 4.5), who were all competitive members of the British Gymnastics Association (BGA). 25 were competing at international level, 9 at national, 5 at junior national and the rest at club or regional level. Personality was assessed using the International Personality Item Pool (IPIP; Goldberg, 1999). Only conscientiousness factor was examined in this study. Participants were also asked to complete the Test of Performance Strategies-2 (TOPS 2; Thomas, Murphy, & Hardy, 1999). Only the goal-setting factor was retained from the TOPS-2 for the purpose of this study. Finally, to assess training behaviours, the Training Related Variables Questionnaire (TRV-Q) was developed. This scale is a measure of four training-related behaviours: quality of preparation, distractability, coping with adversity, and negative perfectionism. Only quality of preparation was retained for the purposes of the study. Results Each of the measures had adequate internal consistency with all Cronbach's Alpha coefficients exceeding .70. Moderated hierarchical regression revealed that conscientiousness was a significant predictor of quality of preparation in Step 1 (R2 = .38, F (1,45) =27.5, p < .001). In Step 2, there was a significant increase in R2 when goal-setting was entered in the model (R2 change = .06, F (1, 44) =4.28, p = < .05). Finally when the product term in Step 3 was regressed (conscientiousness x goal-setting) there was a significant interaction (R2 change= .07, F (1,43) =5.9, p< .05) (see Figure 1). Discussion/Conclusion This is the first study in the sport literature to examine the interaction between personality and psychological skills upon training behaviours. The results indicated that when goal setting was high, differences in conscientiousness had no effect on quality of preparation. In contrast when goal setting was low, conscientiousness had a positive relationship with quality of preparation. This suggests that psychological skills can moderate the effects of personality upon training behaviours. Future research should continue to investigate the complex relationships between personality and other behavioural factors in order to clarify whether some athletes are more prone than others to learn, use, and benefit from psychological skills.
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